Dungeon Crawlers

We love a good genre mash-up, so the prospect of Dungeon Crawlers– replace a dungeon crawling RPG’s fast-paced action with tactical strategy– was extremely enticing to us. The biggest hurdle for such a mash-up is retaining the elements of dungeon crawling that make it so satisfying, like loot drops and randomization. Dungeon Crawlers doesn’t quite do this, but the gameplay is strong enough that it remains a good game.

Dungeon Crawlers’ story revolves around four heroes who are sent into a dungeon to clean out monsters. It’s a simple premise, but it’s backed up by pop-culture references and an eccentric cast. Each character has a unique personality based off of common tropes. For example, Failston is a brew-loving dwarf, and Payter is a bumbling warrior in search of women. The dialogue between the four characters is sure to make you chuckle.

Try talking your way out of this one.

As much as we liked the game’s personality, the most important part of Dungeon Crawlers is the gameplay. Each level is made up of rooms and corridors covered by fog. As you make your way through the level, the fog will clear and reveal whatever is beneath it, like enemies and treasure chests. When you run across an enemy, the game switches from free-roam mode, and your characters appear until all visible enemies are defeated. The third and final level of each of the four chapters is a boss battle. Each boss has to be killed in a unique way that requires you to figure out the solution for yourself.

Each of your characters plays a irreplaceable role in combat. Payter can take a lot of damage, Aegon deals heavy magic damage, Roy heals and buffs, and Failston can detect and disarm traps. Using each character’s special abilities strategically is crucial to overcoming the swarms of enemies. If any character dies in combat, you’re at a massive disadvantage for the rest of the level, as there’s no way to revive them. Fortunately, the game gives you the ability to restart the current encounter.

Mopping up the sludge.

Characters level up through experience and can equip one weapon and piece of armor, but the customization is little more than smoke and mirrors. Character stat improvements upon leveling are preset, and the loot is always found in predetermined locations. There is no choosing between different pieces of loot, because the latest piece you picked up for the character is always the best. Most loot is found in secret areas, so if you happen to miss one, you’re out of luck.

Randomized levels are a major part of the dungeon crawling genre, but Dungeon Crawlers is entirely pre-made. If you keep all of your characters alive, they’ll level up at predetermined times. Plus, enemies only drop useless gold, so you won’t get that amazing feeling from finding the perfect piece of loot.

Even though it misses a few opportunities, we still recommend picking up Dungeon Crawlers. It’s easy to jump into, challenging, and full of humor. Plus, there’s a boss named D. Knight Shyamalan. How great is that?

Game titles don’t get much more descriptive than Dungeon Crawlers, a game about– yes– a team of dungeon crawlers that goes on a monster-killing journey. It also just so happens to be free today. This isn’t a Diablo clone, however. Everything is turn-based and takes place on a grid, which adds a lot of strategy to the whole ordeal.

Your team includes a traditional set of classes: a tough warrior, a powerful wizard, a helpful healer, and a trap-disarming dwarf. Also as usual, you level up as you proceed, and you can equip weapons and armor. In short, it’s a lot of fun, with great presentation to boot. Be sure to read our review and download the game by clicking here.

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The fine folks at Milkbag games have released Sidewords. A fun little diversion of a word game that is the devil child of crosswords and scrabble. For each level in the game the grid must be completed to win the level — this means that each letter at the top and side must be used. And not just the top or side, but each word must be made up of letters from the top and side to create a grid. It’s a pain, but in the right kind of way. Even the simplest of the levels can be a head scratcher until you get used to the game. Well worth the $3 as a diversion while we wait for Milkbag to finally release Snow Siege.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math.

It’s not always easy to tear your kids away from their tablets and make them do something edifying. Thankfully, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math relieves you of this task by turning mathematics into a fun touchscreen video game. Win win!

Aimed at children 3-6 years old, the app makes math fun by ‘gamifying’ it, turning simple mathematics problems into little challenges so that your pre-schooler can learn and play at the same time.

There are more than two dozen mini-games, split across three categories: Numbers, Shapes and Measurements, and Add and Subtract. According to the developer the difficulty of these puzzles is adaptive too, so kids of any ability can be both encouraged and challenged.

Mini Dayz has launched and it’s a pixelated 2.5D open world that’s as brutal as the desktop version. In this game, the player is dumped on shore with nothing. They must scavenge around for food, water, and weapons while avoiding attack. It’s the kind of game where the goal is to stay alive as long as possible. But that will never be very long. It’s oddly free and seems to only have an ad on the main screen — for now.

Pewter Games has brought their charming point and click adventure The Little Acre to iOS. It’s an amazingly beautiful animated adventure set in a sort of hybrid magical / alien world. A great all ages adventure and very fun.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, The House of Da Vinci by Blue Brain Games. There’s a reason Leonardo Da Vinci is the only renaissance figure who routinely shows up in video games you know. With his remarkable inventiveness and genius for creative problem-solving, Da Vinci was a gamer through and through. He was just born 500 hundred years too soon. Thankfully, there are studios like Blue Brain Games to bring him to life in videogame form. The House of Da Vinci, which comes to us courtesy of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, is a puzzler that seeks to channel the artistry and innovation of its title character.

You play as one of Da Vinci’s more promising apprentices, and you have the challenging task of trying to work out where the hell he’s gone. Was he assassinated by the church? Who knows. Has he quietly gone into a retirement? Perhaps. Did he accidentally invent a shrink ray and shrink himself down to the size of an dustmite? Probably not. Da Vinci’s workshop looks beautiful, thanks to some impressive 3D graphics, and the in-game environment is crammed with all the elaborate machines and crazy inventions you’d expect to find in the workplace of a renaissance genius.(more…)

Poly Bridge is out now on iOS, and it’s good to have it! It’s a great game and many seem to agree that it’s the best bridge builder game available. But the iOS versions, so far, is missing the sandbox mode. I would hope that it’s coming soon in an update. If you are all interested in physics puzzlers, grab this one. (Note: the video is for the PC version, I have yet to see a trailer for the mobile version, the developer Dry Cactus isn’t that great at marketing…)

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